1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming method and an image supporting material therefor in which an image is formed on an image transfer material by an image recording method such as electrophotography, thermal transfer recording, ink jet recording or the like and the image formed on the image transfer material is transferred onto an image receiving material, such as cloth, canvas, plastics, paper, wood, leather, glass, china, metals or the like, to obtain an image supporting material. Particularly, the invention relates to an image forming method and an image receiving material therefor in which an oil-painting like image having a good durability can be formed on a canvas.
2. Discussion of the Background
Recently, a variety of image forming apparatus have been developed and utilized for copiers and printers for computers or the like. The images formed with these image forming apparatus are used not only for reading or viewing, but also for various new applications.
As one of these new applications of the images, a method is proposed in which the images are transferred onto an image receiving material, such as cloth, canvas, plastics, paper, wood, leather, glass, china, metals or the like. This method is useful for manufacturing a small lot of made-to-order goods having original pictures thereon, such as T-shirts, sweat shirts, aprons, jackets, cups, plates or stained glass, and for manufacturing small lots of pictures duplicated on canvases, which are mainly manufactured for individuals. Currently, since full color copiers are developed and high quality full color images can easily be obtained, the demand for this method is increasing more and more.
An image transfer sheet used in an image forming method in which toner images on the image transfer sheet are transferred onto an above-mentioned image receiving material is discussed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 52-82509, incorporated herein by this reference. In addition, it is well known that colored images are formed on canvases by methods such as screen printing, offset printing, gravure printing or the like.
The thus formed images have poor durability by themselves, and therefore the images have drawbacks in that the images easily deteriorate when scratched or discolor when irradiated with light. In addition, the images formed by the method mentioned above have the following drawbacks: (1) the gloss of the images is relatively low; and (2) the images do not look like oil-painting images or do not have an oil-painting like feeling because the surface of the images is too smooth and homogeneous.
Because of these reasons, a need exists for an image forming method and an image supporting material therefor in which an image having good durability and light resistance can be easily obtained.